Are you looking to turn your customer data into real, measurable ROI?
In this blog I share how Salesforce Data Cloud can help marketers activate data in powerful, practical ways.
Working for Salesforce for almost 14 years exposed me to the ups and downs of launching or buying new products on the regular. Some flourished, others worked hard in the background never getting the front stage limelight for more than a Dreamforce. What I do know, is that all of these platforms served their purpose. They either provided insight into new ways of working, opened our eyes to the possibility of what could be created, or actually transformed the intricacies of how business gets done. For me, the most successful products and the ones I loved selling, were the products that were the easiest or fastest for clients to earn a quick ROI.
Why Fast ROI Matters In Marketing Tech
My story with Salesforce began in 2010, prior to the launch of Marketing Cloud. There’s no need to get into the details of what piece of technology is the underpinning of others but I have a sweet spot in my heart for Data Cloud—specifically finding the easiest, most rewarding and highest ROI producing aspect of Data Cloud. This takes me back to 2015 when we launched a natively built product in Marketing Cloud called Advertising Studio which explicitly helps you monetize your data through advertising in an automated way using your Marketing Cloud audiences. (And yes, you heard that right…Salesforce built it, it was not acquired.) To this day, it is one of the most adopted Marketing Cloud products! 🎉 And there’s a reason for this. Not only is advertising the largest spend in marketer’s budget, but Advertising Studio is a simple product that solves real problems every customer has. It automates and secures a painful process—and delivers fast ROI.
IT. JUST. WORKS.
I’ll leave the technical implementation of Data Cloud for the experts, see the Salesforce Data Cloud Architect’s Handbook for help on that. This blog is for the Marketer and a shameless plug for the Ateko (formerly CloudKettle) services you need to get you up and running.
What Salesforce Data Cloud Really Does
The purpose of Data Cloud is to ingest, harmonize, unify, and activate your data. Once the most important data has been ingested, harmonized, and unified, the next question is “what are we going to do with all of this data?” There are so many options here and owners of this data get stuck in the mud. Great options include building optimized Marketing Cloud Journeys for targeted email campaigns, personalized website experiences, or creating intelligent agents through Agentforce. All of these options will require Salesforce expertise but don’t worry – if you need a faster path to ROI so leadership understands that this Data Cloud implementation was worth the squeeze, ACTIVATE your data to Google, Amazon, Instagram, Snapchat, Meta, or any Ad platform of choice!
Salesforce Data Cloud empowers you to activate audience segments for paid media campaigns across platforms like Google, Amazon, Meta, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and many others. Enabling Marketers to create targeted advertising and personalized experiences.
Benefits of Data Studio Audiences are Simple yet Compelling
- You know who you are targeting & why
- Your data is automatically synced and updated daily as customers take actions
- Personalized experiences are created for real-time engagement
- Data remains safe, secure, and always fresh
Real-World Example: Activating Data with Advertising Studio
I’ll provide a simple example with Google Search Advertising. I’ll call this fictitious (yet major) hotel chain “SweetEscapes”. Please note, the brand name is fictitious but the facts of this example are real based on the hotel chain I am a loyal member of.
Backdrop: Summer is approaching and we need to get out of the house. My teenage kids are in their final stretch of their high school year and we’re looking for a short, easy getaway.
- I am a rewards member of SweetEscapes, currently holding a high status
- I have booked the majority of my hotels via the SweetEscape App in the past
- We love travel as a family
- Life has been busy and i have not had any hotel bookings in 2025
Action: I googled “Road trip to New York City”
SweetEscapes Understands (due to the data they have captured from me):
- The last time I booked one of their hotels (I have no bookings this year) – Heads up, this is an indicator that they may be losing my attention
- My Lifetime Value (CLV)
- The types of rooms I book & how many people are booked in my room
- Where I live…hence how far I’m traveling
As a SweetEscape loyalty member, I expected them to make my decision easy and enticing. Don’t you expect personalized experiences when you hand over so much of your valuable data?
I am presenting a qualified opportunity that would be ideal for SweetEscapes to take advantage of. That is – I am actively seeking help to create a mini vacation that requires somewhere for my family to sleep for multiple nights. I know “SweetEscapes” doesn’t exist, but the options I’m actually presented with don’t include any of the big chains many guests are loyal too. That’s a miss:
Maybe in a day or two I’ll start getting ads for SweetEscapes because, let’s face it, my entire internet search is being tracked and brands are still targeting based on demographics, interests, and link-clicks. That said, right now I’m in the mindset of figuring out my family vacation. Meet me where it counts!
SweetEscapes doesn’t even need a specialized campaign, they can simply use their 1st party data for targeting, and target me with ads for the beautiful sleep experiences they offer in New York City. That would at least bring me back to their brand for my search. And here is how they do that:
Step 1: Segment Your Audience with Data Cloud
Leverage Data Cloud to segment your data into meaningful groups for personalized messaging. Not only can you start with “existing high-tier loyalty members” to ensure your budget is spent appropriately but you can even remove bias and inaccuracies by utilizing Einstein! Watch how our Data Scientist, Henrik Nordmark, breaks down Finding Customer Segments with Salesforce Einstein AI.
Step 2: Launch a Targeted Ad Campaign
Target 1st party data Segment: Using DataCloud, this high value segment of unified profiles can be auto-refreshed every 24 hrs to ensure SweetEscapes is always meeting valuable customers at their point of need.
Search Keywords: “road trip”, “vacation”, “getaway”, “hotel” + “*location”
-> Show Ad with “location” in the title and link to that cities offerings
Without 1st party data, these keywords are too broad to use for targeting, you’d blow through your Ad spend in an hour! With a data segment I’ve described above, you are targeting valuable guests, in a personalized way, at their point of need. It’s automated, the data remains secure, and you avoid the time-consuming task of uploading lists that quickly become stale.
Why First-Party Data is the Future
As third-party cookies are being phased out, 1st party data allows for more targeted and personalized campaigns leading to improved engagement, higher conversion rates, and a better experience. The trick is to keep your data secure and automate audience refreshes. Mastering your data and how you can use it unlocks a world of possibilities!
Want to chat about Marketing and Data Cloud? Get in touch! We love talking about this stuff.
